Why Women with past health issues struggle to fix triggers in their environment
If you or your family have recently faced a health scare due to mold, Lyme disease, or other chronic illnesses, it’s likely shaken your sense of safety. You may be focusing on hidden health threats in the home and have talked to your husband, who has noticed the effects on your (or your child’s) health. Although he’s supportive, he feels overwhelmed. Or maybe you’ve tried to educate your kids about this, but they’re struggling to accept it.
If this is you, it’s not your fault.
The truth is, there’s an overload of information available with countless possibilities. However, as practical as they are, the number of options can feel overwhelming. That’s why, in this article, I’m going to share the three essential steps you need to take.
So why do women struggle to eliminate toxins in their homes to create a healthier environment?
1. They feel out of control and in over their heads, thinking they need to fix everything at once
The problem is they’ve gotten completely spun up talking to their spouse, friends, and kids, thinking about everything that could be wrong in their home. They’re completely overwhelmed with the possibilities because they think they have to fix everything at once, which is too much to handle. They’re afraid of doing things in the wrong order but don’t know what the right order is, or even if the order matters. On top of that, they are afraid that anything they need to do is going to be drastic and upend their lives.
The solution is to understand that it’s a process and you don’t have to make all of the changes at once. You can tackle the most urgent issues immediately with changes you’re comfortable with, even if they’re baby steps, because progress in the right direction is still an improvement. There are usually several options for corrections, so you can go at your own pace and circle back later to do another round when you’re ready or fix the items that aren’t as important.
Becca is a perfect example of this. When she first came to me, she was exasperated and felt completely beaten down. She had attempted to create a healthier environment on her own, but couldn’t seem to make any progress. She’d feel guilty because she couldn’t seem to get anything done, and then try to tackle it again, and then get overwhelmed and stop. Then she’d repeat the cycle. She was frustrated and she felt defeated before she even started. During our first call, Becca quickly realized that she wasn’t able to make any progress because she didn’t have a plan and was trying to do everything all at once! Once she had her plan, all her angst disappeared. She now had a prioritized punch list, knew what mattered most, understood the options for fixing everything, had a sense of how long things should take, and all of the details so she could go at her own pace and work her way through her plan, which she did bit by bit. She realized that it was the lack of a plan that had kept her stressed out, spinning in circles, and stuck, and now she had a massive feeling of relief.
What many people don’t realize is that they don’t need to stress out about fixing everything all at once, and there isn’t just one solution for every problem. Even if you’re taking small steps in the right direction, it’s still an improvement. Making continuous progress at your own pace gets your environment under control over the long haul and adds up to significant change over time.
2. They’re doomed to fail because they aren’t making decisions based on real data
The problem is that they make wild guesses about what needs to be fixed and how to fix them without backing up their assumptions with any data, resulting in a scattered, hit-or-miss approach. Even if they’ve created a plan, it’s incomplete because it doesn’t contain actual data to guide their decisions.
The solution is that you need real data to understand what’s happening in your home, so you can make informed, data-based decisions, and there are actually very cost-effective meters. Just like an Apple Watch tracks your heart rate, these meters enable you to uncover what might be harming you in your home. And the savings on allergy medication, let alone out-of-pocket medical expenses will quickly get your investment back. But until you’re tracking data, you shouldn’t stress about anything, because you really don’t know when you’re guessing.
When Christy first came to me, she was exhausted and desperate to get her environment under control. Not long after she and her husband moved into their new home, old health issues resurfaced with intensity. Migraines, dizziness, nausea, constant fatigue, and brain fog, conditions she had managed for several months before moving into her new home. On our first call, she realized that she had been making adjustments based on guesswork. She hadn’t been measuring and validating whether her efforts were addressing the real causes. She quickly got to work taking measurements using relatively inexpensive but very telling meters throughout her home. It wasn’t long before she discovered that what she had been focusing on wasn’t the true culprit, but just one piece of a larger hidden puzzle, contributing to her symptoms. With incredible support from her husband, who finally had gauges and clear data, they were able to understand what was happening, and address the issues in their home that had remained hidden until then. And for the first time since their move, she was able to find peace of mind.
It’s so easy to look around your home and assume you know what the biggest issues are. But just like a doctor wouldn’t guess without running tests, you need meters to gather real data. That way, you’re making decisions based on facts, not assumptions, and your chances for success increase significantly
3. They’re always worried and on edge about their environment because they don’t know how to create a plan
The problem is that they can’t relax even after fixing their home because they worry in the back of their mind that when something changes, they’ll miss it and trigger past health issues or develop new ones. The constant stress and worry will affect their health, and those previous health issues could resurface, not from their environment, but from worrying about it!
The solution is to learn how to create a plan and then let it go so you aren’t constantly worrying. Set a calendar reminder twelve months from when you took your measurements to revisit, reassess, and reevaluate your environment. Just like an annual checkup, you’ll have baseline data to compare against. By reevaluating your environment on a regular schedule, you’ll spot any changes and know exactly what is out of balance and needs attention. No more constant worry and no more second-guessing. Just set your calendar, check it in a year, and focus on living your life in the meantime!
Amelia is a perfect example of this. Even after creating a triage plan, taking measurements, and fixing the environment in her new home, where she and her family had moved after more than a year of searching for the perfect home, she found herself still worrying. In the back of her mind, she wondered if anything had changed that could trigger past health issues or create new ones. Every time a symptom popped up, even something mild like low energy or a few nights of restless sleep, she’d wonder if it was just a passing issue or a sign of something more serious related to her home. She immediately recognized that her worrying had become a habit from all of the years she had experienced health issues. She realized that she could create a plan with the measurements and instruments from fixing her home. Once she created her plan and set her calendar reminder, she felt she could finally exhale, relax, and truly enjoy her new home.
It’s not worth living in constant worry and anxiety, wondering if anything has changed in your home since you fixed it, especially after overcoming health challenges. Once you create a plan and set a calendar reminder to reassess and reevaluate your home in twelve months, you can relax and let your anxiety go. So go ahead and set it, then forget about it for twelve months.
Remember, you don’t have to make all the changes at once. Small steps in the right direction with a clear triage plan, data-driven decisions, and a system to catch issues so you’re not constantly worrying, are critical to creating a healthy environment where you can truly relax and thrive.
You don’t have to struggle to create a healthy environment!
As the Trigger Analyst, I help women with past health challenges cut through the overwhelming process of removing home toxins that could trigger past or future health issues. If that sounds like you, I’m here to help!
